Within Europe, Netherlands-based Bitfury, a mining hardware
developer, captured the greatest share, raising $20 million. That
funding round alone made the Netherlands the second-largest
recipient of VC funds in the world.

We recently
showed that European countries hold the top-5 positions for
downloads per capita of Bitcoin's core protocol. We got further
evidence of the surge in Europe today, as Barry Silbert's Bitcoin
Opportunity Corp. venture capital fund
announced a $250,000 investment in Stockholm-based
Bitcoin service provider Safello.

"In a very short period of time, the Safello team has
created a leading European platform for buying, storing and
selling bitcoin," Silbert said in a statement. "Their user and
transaction growth is accelerating and I’m thrilled to join a
group of fantastic investors to help support Safello’s rapid
growth and ambitious product plans."

Silbert said the opportunity in Europe is strong, though is still
unlikely to match America's anytime soon.

"While there is a growing number of bitcoin investment
opportunities in Europe, the companies are much earlier stage and
funding rounds much smaller than in the U.S.," he said in an
email. "I expect that the U.S. will continue to lead the world in
terms of the number of bitcoin startups and fundraising for the
foreseeable future."